to flesh a sword

9.9

To use a sword in battle for the first time

idiom

Archaic

: probar una espada

The young knight longed for the chance to flesh a sword on the battlefield.

Examples

Eager for glory, he was determined to flesh a sword in his first campaign.
The knight fleshed a sword bravely.
Many nobles saw tournaments as opportunities to flesh a sword without risking their lives.
He fleshed a sword!
Eager for glory, he was determined to flesh a sword in his first campaign.
Many nobles saw tournaments as opportunities to flesh a sword without risking their lives.
The young knight longed for the chance to flesh a sword on the battlefield.

Surface Forms

flesh a sword infinitive

Morphology

flesh + a + sword

The archaic sense 'to use or test a sword in battle' is not directly derivable from the constituents for a B1 learner: 'flesh' in modern common usage does not mean 'to test' and the article 'a' adds nothing. Although a learner might guess a literal contact with flesh, the specific ritual/first-use sense is historical and idiomatic, so the meaning is not predictably compositional.

Etymology

The verb flesh a sword may come from the image of a blade cutting the flesh and drawing blood the first time it met an enemy. So, to flesh a sword came to mean 'to use or test a sword in battle for the first time'.